Ranchi, October 18: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday announced seat sharing for the upcoming assembly polls, with the BJP set to contest 68 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand assembly.
The BJP will contest the polls in alliance with All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), Janata Dal-United (JDU) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas).
Announcing the seat sharing at a joint press conference with AJSU party at BJP state headquarters in Ranchi, Assam chief minister and BJP’s Jharkhand election co-incharge Himanta Biswa Sarma, said, “We have arrived at consensus that the AJSU will contest 10 seats, the JDU would contest two seats and LJP would contest one seat. The rest of the seats would be contested by BJP.”
AJSU chief Sudesh Mahto and other party leaders besides union agriculture minister Shivraj Chouhan and Jharkhand BJP chief Babulal Marandi were also present at the event.
AJSU will contest Silli, Ramgarh, Gomia, Jugsalai (SC), Ichagarh, Lohardaga (ST), Pakur, Manoharpur (ST), Mandu and Dumri. The JDU would contest Jamsedpur West and Tamar (ST) while the LJP (R) would contest Chatra (SC).
It is clear that sitting Jamshedpur East MLA Saryu Roy whose party merged with JD-U recently will contest from Jamshedpur West leaving the suspense over Jamshedpur East seat.
Sarma, however, underlined that the alliance partners could make one or two changes after assessing the ground situation following seat and candidate declaration of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc alliance.
Jharkhand will go to polls in two phases, on November 13 and November 20. The counting of votes will take place on November 23.
The current Jharkhand assembly’s term will end on January 5, 2025.
The BJP is likely to contest 68 seats, but discussions are ongoing in the final stages. Himanta said that the NDA was in ‘wait and watch’ mode, indicating that a final list would be out once they get to know what Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and others were planning.
On Friday, the nomination filing process for the first phase began, which will continue until October 25. The withdrawal of nominations can be done until October 30, according to the election officials.
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